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When the Olympic class ships were on the drawing board, a problem presented itself.  Cherbourg harbour in France was to small to accomodate liners of the massive new class.  The White Star Line decided to build two small tenders to help transport passengers to the waiting ships.  Nomadic and Traffic were planned and prepared at Belfast's Harland and Wolff shipbuilders yard.
              Launched on April 25th, 1911, 5 days before the launch of
Titanic, Nomadic measured just over 220 feet in length and weighed 1,273 tonnes.  After a short period of trials, she was handed over to the White Star Line on the 27th of May, 1911, a month and two days after her launch. 
         
Nomadic was designed to carry the First and Second class passengers and their luggage out to waiting vessels.  She served the Olympic on her maiden voyage at Cherbourg on the 14th of June, 1911, and along with her sister Traffic, served Olympic 12 more times before Titanic's maiden voyage.
          When
Titanic arrived at Cherbourg in the early evening of April 10th, 1912, Nomadic took charge of 172 passengers, including John Jacob Astor and his very young and very pregnant wife Madeline, Benjamin Gugginheim and his misteress Madam Aubert as well as his Valet, Victor Giglio, Margaret (Molly) Brown, the Ryersons and their three children and Sir and Lady Cosmo Duff Gordon.  The passengers occupied barely a fifth of her passenger capacity.
          When war was declared in 1914,
Nomadic and Traffic had very little to do as many were refusing to use the Atlantic for travel any more because of the threat of the German U-boats.  Nomadic was requasitioned by the French government and was stationed at Brest.  Her duties were much the same, but instead of passengers, she ferried troops out to the waiting ships.
          By 1919 though, the war was over and once again passengers were taking to the seas.  Stationed once again at Cherbourg,
Nomadic continued to transport many noted celebrities out to waiting White Star Line vessles.
          In 1927,
Nomadic was sold to Compagnie Cherbourgeoise de Transbordement to make sure she would service only White Star Line ships. Six years later, she was again sold to Societie Cherbourgeoise de Remorque et de Sauvetage, where she was renamed Ingenieur Minard.  While still at Cherbourg, she served not only White Star ships, but also those owned by different companies. 
           In 1939, World War was once again declared and after evacuating
British troops out of occupied France.  In June 1940, the French government requasisioned her as a patrol vessel.
         
Ingenieur Minard was returned to Cherbourg in a terrible state of disrepair after the war.  She had lost her sister, Traffic (Ingenieur Riebell), but luckily for her, she was fixed to her pre war self and once again was used as a tender, but unfortunatly, not as often as before.  Cherbourg harbour has been widened, and now, Ingenieur Minard was used only when more than one liner was present.
              As the age of the liners came to a close,
Nomadic served her last ship, the Queen Elizabeth in November 1968 and was sold shorty afterward in full working order.  In 1974, she was sold yet again, this time to Yvon Vinsent and she was towed up the Seine river in France where she was re-named Nomadic and was placed opposite Paris' Eiffel Tower to be a resteraunt.
            Finally, she opened in 1977, but now she lies empty and unused, her windows and portholes smashed and paint rusting in long brown streaks down her hull side.  Unfortunatly, recently, Mr Vinsent has sold
Nomadic and now the vessel's future is doubt, and unless some money can be raised, the French government has advised she may have to be scrapped.


                                          
Nomadic in the gantry
At Cherbourg
Loaded with Troups
Ingenieur Minard
Nomadic, 1977
Please Note: The following photos are from my personal collection.  Please, feel free to use them, but only with a link to this site and my name.
A Visit With the Nomadic
Recently, my family and I travelled overseas, and Paris was one of the many places we had to go to.  When travelling along on a leasurly cruise along the Seine, listening to the wonderfully talented tour guide speaking in three different languages, I noticed a large ship coming up on the right of the river opposite the Eiffel Tower.  She was much larger than the other ships around her, and when I came closer, I noticed that in the traditional White Star Line shape, the name
Nomadic had been fixed to the side of her.
          I didn't realise it at first, but I was looking at a part of Titanic's history for real.  I had known the tenders
Traffic and Nomadic had ferried passengers out to waiting ships at Cherbourg, but I had never guessed that this was one of them.  A few days later, I was back in Paris, and while looking down at the Nomadic from the first floor of the Eiffel Tower, I became sure she was the original White Star tender.  I took my father over the river to see her, and armed with my camera and a large amount of photos of the original, I scoured all over the exterior of the ship.
          On the stern, the name Nomadic has been painted on, and under the coat of white paint, just visible is the imprints of the letters that spell Cherbourg.  It was then I knew I was onto something special.  I walked around to the front of the ship, pointing out little things all the way, to admire the prow of the small ship.  My dad noticed what I had missed here.  Above a door in the middle of the ship, was a large sign, translated roughly into English 'Transporter for the Titanic'.  Snapping photos the whole way, I felt saddened that this was all that remained of the White star Line, the last ship surviving of the line that once ruled the waves.
              Personally, I would like to see Nomadic restored to her former glory, possibly reisding in Cherbourg, Belfast or Southampton as a constant reminder of the White Star Line history.  I just hope the French will find it in their hearts not to scrap a piece of their history.
Pictures by Alex McLean